Faculty & Research

Federally funded research by Harvard scholars has led to life-changing solutions to real-world problems facing millions of Americans, from preventing opioid deaths to treating diseases to building a better air conditioner.

Nonie K. Lesaux, Roy Edward Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development, has been named dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

From developing a better way to predict and prevent wildfires, to upcycling wool waste into building insulation, to convening insurance and climate change experts to address gaps in knowledge, five new interdisciplinary projects have received funding from the Salata Institute Seed Grant Program. 

Earth scientist Hong Yang, musician William Cheng PhD ’12, and computer scientist Narges Mahyar—all Radcliffe fellows—blend music, data, and visuals to increase climate change awareness.

A brain cell study by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard Medical School, and McLean Hospital shows that a genetic mutation expands over decades and becomes rapidly toxic later in life.

Inspired by a dog’s nose, researchers at Harvard have developed an affordable air quality sensor called Project Air that can detect and discern indoor pollutants with nearly 100 percent accuracy.

After experiencing Hurricane Katrina firsthand, Radcliffe Fellow Rob Verchick JD ’89 is examining the human-fueled disasters facing our oceans and how scientists, politicians, and the public can help.

At Harvard Forest, ecologist Neil Pederson and Ramapough Lenape tribe member Keshia De Freece Lawrence blend research with Indigenous knowledge to protect vulnerable habitats.

According to a study from Harvard, in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester, and University College London, air pollution from burning fossil fuels was responsible for about one in five deaths worldwide in 2018—significantly higher than previous research suggested.

New faculty appointed to Harvard Chan School’s Department of Environmental Health are studying how a variety of environmental factors—including an individual’s total environmental exposures to toxins over the course of their life, the microbes in engineered water systems, and climate-related extreme weather events—can impact health.